Performance and Carcass Quality of Hogs Subjected to Reduced Nocturnal Tmperatures – Poster

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on January 1, 2000 | No Comments

Gestating Sows: All Group Housing is Not the Same, But Neither are All Stalls

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Body condition is the main factor affecting productivity and longevity of sows. A common management practise for controlling body condition is to control nutrient intake by use of penning in stalls. However, stalls violate one criterion concerning high animal welfare, that is, freedom of movement. An alternative to stall housing is group housing.
Often we hear statements concerning a

Earthen manure storage monitoring: PSC Elstow research farm Inc.

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An increase in environmental awareness has come with the expansion of the hog industry in Saskatchewan. More stringent standards have been set for earthen manure storages such as a minimum of 600mm repacked clay soils and geotextile liners. However, these improved liners have done little to alleviate public concerns. In answer to this concern, a program was initiated to monitor solute migration through the liners of different hog manure storages throughout Saskatchewan. Currently, the system has been installed in three newly constructed sites and two established sites.

Stunning of poultry.

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Hoop housing for feeder pigs offers a welfare-friendly environment compared to a nonbedded confinement system.

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The trend in swine production during the last 50 years, in North America, has been to move away from outdoor, open, dirt-lot systems to a totally confined systems. The economy of scale offers farmers a significant income on a commodity that provides little revenue on an individual pig basis. There are several important differences in the two production methods in terms of swine welfare. The outdoor system typically provides a greater amount of space per pig and thus allows swine the freedom to move and choose an environment. The outdoor systems offers several disadvantages as well. Pigs may be exposed to environmental temperature extreme that could negatively affect their welfare and could be challenged with disease that cannot be eradicated from the soil. The move to a confinement system has helped to eliminate the welfare concerns of thermal stress and disease that challenge outdoor swine. Because total confinement systems are expensive to build and maintain compared to less intensive systems the producers have become interested in an inexpensive alternative: hoop structures (Hoop) recently. The hoop use bedding to keep the pig dry and allow this bedding to compost beneath the pigs to keep them warm in the winter. This study compared the behaviour and physiology of pigs in a nonbedded confinement system (NBCS) with those in the hoop. Two experiments, 1 in the winter and 1 in the summer, assessed the welfare of pigs based on the incidence of aberrant behaviour, physiology responses to handling, incidence of lameness, and the performance of play behaviour. Pigs raised in NBCS performed more aberrant behaviours and less play behaviour, had greater plasma cortisol response to handling (but fewer vocalizations), and a greater incidence of injuries than did the pigs raised in Hoop. Based on these data, pigs in the Hoop were adjudged to have enhanced welfare as compared to pigs raised in the NBCS. Because the welfare of pigs in the Hoop appears to be greater than the welfare of pigs raised in the NBCS, future research should be determined which factors are most important to pigs and then try to incorporate these into production systems.

Effect of a trainer cow on health, behavior, and performance of newly weaned beef calves.

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A similar protocol was followed in three experiments: a trainer cow was randomly assigned to half the pens of recently weaned calves. Data on physiology, behaviour and performance were collected. Trainer cows did not affect rectal temperatures, requirements for antibiotic therapy, white blood cell counts, neutrophil:lymphocyte ratios, or leukotoxin antibody titers. There were no overall differences in weight gain. Trainer cows did not affect the frequency and duration of visits to the bunk. The number of calves observed eating increased. The presence of a trainer cow resulted in less calves lying and more walking, than when no cow was present. The authors concluded that trainer cows did not improve calf health, time spent at the feed bunk or performance of newly weaned calves.

Male broiler breeder fowl display high levels of aggression towards females.

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Commercial broiler breeder males are reported to display high levels of aggression, often injuring and sometimes killing females. Aggression toward females by mature male domestic fowl is rare and may be regarded as aberrant behaviour. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of genetic strain and feed restriction on the sexual and aggressive behaviour of male domestic fowl. Behaviour of 3 genetic strains (two broiler breeder strains and one commercial laying strain) on two feeding regimens (one restricted and one fed ad libitum) between 25 and 37 d of age was compared in this experiment. At 22 week of age, pairs of same-strain males were penned with 20 females of a broiler breeder strain. Behaviour was sampled from each pen for six 10-min periods during weeks 25, 27, 29, 33 and 37. Broiler breeder males displayed significantly more male-to-male and male-to-female aggression than laying strain males. Broiler breeder males chased females, forced more copulations and displayed little courtship behaviour compared with laying strain males. There were no behavioural differences between broiler breeder strains. It was expected that feed restriction would result in increased aggression. However, males fed ad libitum displayed the most male-to-male and male-to-female aggression. Sexual behaviour was not affected by feeding regimen. In conclusion, broiler breeder males display aberrant sexual behaviour and extremely high levels of aggression, which are associated with genetic differences, not feed restriction

The vocal expression of feeding motivation and frustration in the domestic laying hen

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Thwarting of feeding behaviour in the laying hen results in an increase in stereotyped pacing, displacement preening, and the gakel-all (a call consists of a whining, elongated note, followed by a variable number of short notes). These behaviours therefore reflect the frustration arousal caused by the thwarting of feeding behaviour. This raises the question whether the level of frustration also varies with the intensity of the motivation to perform the thwarted behaviour. This study investigated the relationship between the intensity of the motivation and level of frustration on the one hand and the gakel-call on the other hand. In experiment 1, the strength of the motivation to feed was varied by thwarting hens in their feeding behaviour in an operant procedure after different durations of food deprivation (0, 8, 23, 47 h). Trend analysis showed that with increasing hunger state, an increasing number of gakel-calls was given. No effect of treatments on temporal characteristics of the gakel-call was found. In experiment 2, the level of frustration was varied by reducing or increasing the duration of access to food for food-deprived hens compared to the duration of access during training. It was assumed that a shorter duration of access to food compared to training would elicit frustration, which in turn would affect the performance of behaviours indicative of thwarting. However, we found neither a relation between the number of gake-calls nor the temporal features of the gakel-call and the duration of access to food. Possibly, the differences between treatments were not large enough to induce differences in frustration level. Also, other factors that might have influenced the motivation are discussed.

Detection of Trichinella infection in food animals.

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Consolidation in Meatpacking: Causes & Concerns

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The U.S. meatpacking industry consolidated rapidly in the last two decades, as todaya